Planning a trip to Europe in April with 4 full days in Paris. After extensive research, I have a loose itinerary, and would like some help.

1) Plan to purchase 2 day museum pass and 3 day metro pass (they don’t have a 4 day pass for some reason) We want to use public transportation from CDG to Paris, should we buy our passes online or once we arrive in Paris?
2) We would like to stay central and plan to do a lot of walking and/or metro/bus system. I’ve narrowed it down to 3 hotels, would like any input on these. Our budget is about $200-$250 US/night
Any other hotel suggestions would be appreciated as well.
Agora Saint Germain
Best Western Le Jardin De Cluny
Les Grand Hotel des Gobelin

Thanks

You should never buy passes for Paris online ahead of time. There is absolutely no reason to do that, and you'll pay a surcharge, of course, because you will be buying them from a for-profit website. At least, those are the only websites I've ever seen selling them, and then you either do not really have one (some places give you a "voucher" rather than the pass, so you then must go to one particular site to retrieve them, so it is more inconvenient than just buying them in person), or you pay even more to have them mailed to you.

It depends what you want to walk to, but I don't think you'll want to walk to too much from the Grand Hotel Gobelins, as it will be too far. That's not that great a location as it's right on a very busy boulevard (bd St Marcel) and not close to anything you'll probably want to walk to--except rue Mouffetard, I'd say. Sure you can walk several miles to other things, But I don't think you'll want to. There are buses and a metro stop close by, however.

I've stayed at the Jardin de Cluny, but maybe 10 years ago. It had fairly large rooms (and bathrooms), and the staff were nice and accommodating enough. I had a room on the central "courtyard" (which isn't what you probably envision that being, just a central air space) and it was very noisy because the staff made a lot of noise at the ground level and it echoed up and down a lot. They were making this noise until very late, also, for some reason I couldn't figure out (some work room or kitchen or something borders on that). So, I would request a room overlooking the street. You can easily walk to Notre Dame from there, and the Seine. The Agora St Germain (which isn't in St Germain, despire its name) isn't too far away, but I think in a more inconvenient location due to the street its on and the geography around there. Between those two, I'd take the Jardin de Cluny for location.

I don't have any first hand experience with the hotels, but I can advise to wait until you get to Paris to buy your Metro & Museums passes. It is very easy to do and you'll avoid a mark-up fee. I am a big planner and like to have everything lined up before we get to our destination and it killed me not to buy these in advance, but it was a good move.

The hotel Left Bank St Germain (I haven't stayed there but might) sent an email with a 140 euro book ahead price. I think I'm on their list because I was once going to stay in one of their affiliated hotels. They are decent hotels, and this book ahead deal is a good one. Some of your mentioned hotels look familiar; are any of them part of that group?

When you pick the two days for your museum pass, please check opening and closing days and times, so you can get your best two days out of the pass.

The other suggestion I have is buying the carnet of 10 tickets instead of a pass. We have checked into transport passes on every trip, and it always adds up that the carnet and walking are really all we need. We occasionally have been in a taxi, maybe about once per trip.

No need to buy passes ahead of time.

We have used the RER from CDG, back and forth. I was warned last year about not using it from the airport while we were toting my husband's camera equipment that he needed for a shoot. We took the RER anyway, and it was totally easy and not a problem.

No need for a pass for the metro. Just buy a carnet the first time you enter the metro.

Don't buy the museum pass ahead of time, either. Buy it at any big metro station or at the first museum you visit. No reason to pay some silly markup, and one less thing to carry over the ocean with you.

Christina- thanks for the perspective on the hotels, it's hard to figure out from all the reviews that people leave.
It sounds like it's not wise to purchase the museum pass or metro pass ahead of time.
Tuscanlifeedit- will look into left bank st germain hotels- is that a fairly central hotel?
So if we wanted to take the RER from CDG into Paris, I assume it's fairly easy to purchase at the airport. Also, I was looking at the metro pass instead of the 10 ticket carnet, because we would like to visit a lot of neighborhoods-i.e. monmarte, chinatown, go to versailles for half a day, 7e, etc so I thought we would be using the tickets up rather quickly. Does on carnet cover a full day, or do we use it per stop?

Thanks again

Also, any input on two other hotels?

Hotel des Grande Ecoles
Hotel de Jardins du Luxembourg

Thanks

Hi

My wife and I went to Paris in April a couple of years back. Here is my trip report with pictures http://gardkarlsen.com/Paris_France.htm . Maybe you can find some useful information there

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

If you are arriving on a Monday to Wednesday, I'd buy a Carte Orange pass instead of a carnet of metro tickets.

When you take the metro, you use one ticket for the entire metro journey. However, when you exit the metro, you cannot use that same ticket again.

It's very likely you'd take the metro 4x or more per day. A Carte Orange costs about 16 Euros. So I think it would pay off even with a 4-day stay.

Hi C,

>Hotel des Grande Ecoles
Hotel de Jardins du Luxembourg

Both have gotten good reviews here. check them out in the "search this forum" box and on www.tripadvisor.com.

We always stay at the Hotel Bonaparte, 61 Rue Bonaparte in the 6th. From 128E dbl w/bkfst. It is located near 3 metro stops. Has AC and an elevator.

Tel 33 1 43 26 97 37
FAX 33 1 46 33 57 67
[email protected]
www.hotelbonaparte.fr

For more info, enter "Hotel Bonaparte" in the "search this forum" box.

Photos are at http://tinyurl.com/ludgd

Paris is a great city to walk in. My Lady Wife and I have never used more than one carnet of tickets per week.

>Does one carnet cover a full day...

A carnet is 10 tickets for about 11.5E, about a 20% discount.

> 4 full days in Paris.
With only 4 days in Paris, I would save Versailles for another visit. There is plenty to do in Paris.

Where are you going that is better than another 2-3 days in Paris?

Gard- wow what a wealth of information on your website, thank you so much! We are going around the same time in April, so I do understand the weather will not be ideal. Thanks again